Friday, January 28, 2011

Trainer put me through a circuit involving a spin bike, box jumps, push-ups on dumbells combined with shoulder raises, jumping lunges combined with jump squats, some footwork with a half bosu ball, mountain climbers, push-ups with oblique work, and a plank on a bosu ball. Went through twice. It was pretty intense.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Gave blood today, so no real training done. I did stand in some bajiquan stances for a while at work, but that's about it.

I want to take a minute to encourage you guys to give blood, if you can. It's a great way to help people in need and requires little sacrifice on your part. A little pain in the arm, a few minutes of your time, and a day of rest. A lot of people need blood every day, so it's something with which we all have the power to help.

Thanks, guys. Got some cool stuff planned for the next couple of days. Until then, good luck and train hard!

Realize that if it is a low rep count for a set, that you need to be having a heavier weight for whatever it is.

For sit-ups, you can increase the difficulty by using a decline bench, before using weights.

Front Squats are done with the bar held in front, resting on your upper arms and shoulders, your hand crossed high across your body.

That's all for today. I'm going to post one more workout for Oliva that is more inspired by Biscuit, than Sergio. Hopefully you enjoyed the training of the real-life version, though!! He was a monster. I'll post the pictures I have with the last workout.

If the exercise does not say the weight increases, pick a weight to stick with for the exercise.

If an exercise does not have reps or sets specified, use your own judgement on how you feel that day.

For the sit-ups, it is conceivable that at some point you can add weight, but I would say not to until you can do all 10 sets of 50 reps without fail.

The leg raises, I suppose, are hanging leg raises. The legs need to remain straight as you do them and come up as high as you can.

When doing sidebends with a bar behind your neck, please collar the bar well and try not to do too much weight too soon.

The first time you do any of these workouts will be a learning experience of how much weight you should use. I was going to list Oliva's weights, but they are really quite ridiculous with the sets and reps he does. I will, however, post the photos that have them listed on them.

Monday, January 17, 2011

In Grappler Baki, Biscuit Oliva (yeah, that's his name) is a massively powerful man, covered in slabs of muscles. As a matter of fact, he has so much muscle he doesn't really even dodge knives because his muscles are so thick and he actually got shot in the chest with a shotgun and was fine (honestly, I can't see it being a very low gauge, but still! It's a damn shotgun!). In the world of Grappler Baki, Oliva is known as Unchained, lives in the Arizona State Prison and can pretty much do whatever he wants, whenever he wants. He and Yujiro are even (kind of) friends, which says something about his badass-ness.

Anyway, his character is actually based on real-life bodybuilder Sergio Oliva, who is just a monster of a man, even though he no longer competes in bodybuilding. After some research, I've come across some workouts of his. There are six days of training listed, Monday-Saturday, and it's quite intense. On that note, you need to take into account some things when looking at the frequency, volume, and intensity of these workouts: To have that much muscle and to recover quickly enough to lift in this manner almost 100% of the time requires steroid use... no ifs, ands, or buts. I'm not telling you to use them, I'm just letting you know that if you attempt to tackle this program full-on, especially if you are not already in shape, you will most likely overtrain and possibly injure yourself. At the end, I'll also post some pictures of the workouts with the actual weights Oliva would use.

Scott (Preacher) Curls with Dumbbells- 5 Sets of 5 Reps (Keep the same weight- one arm at a time.)

Seated Dumbbell Triceps/Triceps Press Down Super Set

-5 Sets

-5 Reps Dumbbell Triceps

-No Specification for Triceps Press Downs

Notes:

Just to clarify, you don't need to do the Monday-Saturday workouts on their respective days. It's perfectly OK to do Monday on a Friday, because generally Real Anime Training workouts are not done in any particular order, unless of course you've constructed some sort of themed training program from them. :)

Unless noted as Dumbbell, use a straight bar for all lifts.

For Pull-ups, you are welcome to use whatever grip you like or even alternate between different grips. You can even use a weights if you like.

Extending Heavy Curls, I assume, is just biceps curls with a straight bar. Be sure not to cheat with your hips on this movement and use full range of motion, which means a split-second hang at the very bottom of the movement.

You are more than welcome to cut the sets down at the beginning of your training and please be mindful not to jump ahead in weight too quickly. It is better to start at a weight you can handle and build from that point, than to improperly do an exercise with too much weight and see no significant strength gains or (worse) get injured.

That's all for today. Sorry for the slowness recently. Since there aren't a whole lot of "bodybuilding" type workouts in Real Anime Training, I hope you enjoy the variety that these workouts bring to the table. Until next time, good luck and train hard!

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Garouden is a badass manga, which was apparently a book series first, has also been made into a movie and has another manga version. Bunshichi Tanba has a lot of success as a dojo crasher, until he stumbles upon a pro-wrestling gym and procedes to get worked over. The story chronicles Tanba's exploits, as well as the fights of some of the world's greatest (fictional) fighters. I've only ever read both the manga versions, but both are very enjoyable and include great action. I strongly encourage you to check out any version of the story you can get your hands on.

Also, this workout is called "Daily Training," but I'm sure that this isn't the only thing he does, it's just something he's seen doing in one of the manga versions.

If you are unable to do fingertip push-ups, just practice them as best you can. I would say you would need to be able to do all 50 Fingertip push-ups with 5 fingers before you start dropping other fingers.

For martial arts practice, there is no definite time or prescription. You can do forms, shadowbox, practice techniques, hit pads/mitts, spar, or just practice various footwork.

Ideally, there is no rest in between any of the activities of this workout.

Sorry there haven't been too many workouts recently. The holidays and work have kept me pretty busy, but I've still been researching. Still looking to toss out some things like Garouden, Ultra Red, TOUGH, and other things.

It was good to be able to train with my Dad again. He hasn't been able to run for a long time, because of a serious injury, but after long periods of rehabilitation and some really nice shoes, he's been able to run a couple of times now.

I really do like to mix it up with my training. This workout wasn't so cardio taxing and wasn't super heavy or high rep-- but kind of stayed right in the middle of all three and included some things I don't normally do.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Stance training is hard. I'm not used to this kind of thing, because it's so much different than other types of conditioning. I'm liking this "stability" that's started to come with the stance training, for certain.

About Me

I'm a martial artist, fitness enthusiast, ACE Certified Personal Trainer, and the author of Real Anime Training. I'm always looking for new ways to challenge myself and my ultimate goals are to spread knowledge about fitness and martial arts and to become a professional athlete.